The Matter of the Evening
by WestwardGlance
Summary: Old Zuko and Katara have a quiet reflective conversation on what might have been at Toph's funeral. Canon compliant musings.


**_Author's Note: _**This is the first and only time I intend on writing for this fandom and it bears some explanation. While having a conversation with my writer's group, we made the mistake of accidentally reigniting the great Avatar Shipping War. As an offer of peace, I put out this entirely canon-compliant (to the best of my knowledge) Old Zuko and Katara fic. It's a bit sentimental, but I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

Zuko was tired of funerals. When you live to be as old as he had, you've attended far too many. Too many acquaintances and friends. Too many family members. That's what Toph was of course. One of his family.

Among the last he had left.

It was a bright and sunny day in Zaofu, one that seemed somehow inappropriate for a funeral. The crowd gathered around the shining tomb of platinum had come from all corners of the globe and from each of the four nations. Zuko's thoughts strayed to memories rather than the present. He'd heard the stories and anecdotes told a hundred times and his own memory was clearer than those telling them second hand. Toph's deeds were nothing if not legendary, but he had been there in person.

Eventually, the ceremony ended and Zuko stood to straighten his back. It popped distressingly. Dignitaries from many lands mingled and some even tried to engage him in discussion. Zuko only smiled and moved on, unwilling to be entangled in any conversation. Some distance away from the tomb, he came upon a cherry tree in bloom. Its pink petals drifted softly to the ground, carpeting the ground like new snow. He sat on the bench beneath its eaves, content to be at peace for a time and drifted into a pleasant nap.

It was not to be.

"Even after all these years, you are still one of the least social humans I have ever met."

He opened an eye lazily. "It's good to see you too Katara." She wore blue of course, that same brilliant shade of the ocean she had worn when they met all those years ago when he had attacked her village and threatened her Gran Gran. Life was funny like that though and had a way of reminding you of the things at the strangest times.

She smiled and the wrinkles at her cheeks deepened. "I said nothing of the sort. Move over you old sack of bones."

Zuko made an exaggerated grunt as he made room for her. They shared a companionable silence for some time. When you have been friends for so many years, most of what can be said already has been said. Still, he thought, he should not take such time together for granted. There was a worm in the back of his mind that whispered that any meeting between them may be their last.

"You know I think we're the last ones left, Katara," he said softly.

Katara glanced at him and nodded. "You heard about Teo dying last fall then?"

Zuko nodded. "I hadn't seen or heard from him in many years. Something which I've come to regret."

She laughed. "He took after his father too much. More interested in tinkering with machines than catching up with old friends. I'll miss Toph, you know?"

"Of course, I know that."

"Zuko. That was rhetorical."

"I knew that as well." Katara laughed again and Zuko's heart was at ease for the first time in a long time. "I'll miss her too," he whispered.

A soft breeze began to blow and a cloud passed over the late afternoon sun.

"Do you ever wonder," Katara began after a minute's silence, "if things might have been different?"

He raised his one eyebrow in question, wondering if perhaps she was baiting him into a trap. No that is nonsense. She's too old to be playing games like that.

"Of course. A prudent man considers the fork in the road not only when he takes it, but when he is long past as well." He did his best impression of Uncle and it made her laugh. He never was much good at impressions. When the laughter subsided, they paused awkwardly. He was not a fool and knew what she had been getting at, but Zuko had never been any good at this sort of thing.

"You would have made a terrible Fire Lady," he said, finally.

"Excuse me?"

"Absolutely terrible. No decorum. No manners. The nobles and court would have hated you. Plus imagine all the blue you would have demanded I put up in the palace. The place would have been… practically purple."

A smile threatened at the corners of her mouth. "My father would have killed you first. Or Sokka."

"I think Sokka would have welcomed such a pairing."

"Maybe. But dad would have never had it."

"Since when did you allow men to dictate how you lived your life?"

Katara's mouth dropped open. "I'll have you know that I would have made a perfect Fire Lady. I may not have had the social graces that Mai did but the Fire Nation has always been too stodgy about… everything. You had to tell your people that dancing was no longer to be discouraged, for Tui's sake!"

The mention of Mai brought a damper to the conversation. It was impossible to play what-if without offending what had been. "If you had been Fire Lady," Zuko finally says, "Perhaps Mai would not have died in childbirth and lived a long and happy life. For her sake, I can almost wish that could have been."

Katara furrowed her forehead into a thousand wrinkles. "And perhaps Aang would have had more Airbender children. I could only ever give him one."

"But then there is the thing," Zuko said. "I wouldn't trade my daughter Izumi for anything, not even a long life for Mai."

"Nor would I give up Bumi, Kya, or Tenzin and the grandkids"

The sun came back out and a pair of birds sang in the cherry tree above them. In the distance, their own children, along with dignitaries from many nations were congregated in speech.

"Tenzin could learn to lighten up," Zuko said, carefully.

"He's getting better," Katara countered, defensively. "But your daughter turned out okay."

"Yes. She did."

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her smiling. He would be lying if he said she was the beauty she once was, but her eyes were still bright and clear and blue as her element. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "The morning is long passed and now too has the afternoon. There is, of course, the matter of the evening."

She looked at him and laughed. Zuko never had been any good at these things. Suddenly he felt like a teenager again, stumbling over his words. Nearly eighty years pass and some things have not changed. It is a difficult thing to ask a woman if she thinks as highly of you as you do of her.

"Uncle would be proud you know," she said.

He opened his mouth but then closed it again. What was she getting at…?

"For all his influence, you never were very smooth with the women."

He crossed his arms. "How would you know?"

"Mai and I talked. A lot."

Somehow, Zuko found that the most concerning thing he has heard in many years.

Katara continued unabated. "As I was saying, Uncle would be proud. That was a clever and poetic way to ask a girl on a date."

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Damn this awkwardness. Why was this so hard? They had known each other for most of a century and their spouses had been dead for decades. "Is that a yes?"

"I suppose it is. It is just the two of us left, after all."

He froze "What's that supposed to mean? Surely I'm not your last choice."

She elbowed him in the ribs and he made an oof sound. "It means that it's too easy to get under your skin. Now help an old woman up if you will. Bumi says there is a delightful little tea shop in the first dome. He was going to take me, but I won't complain if you beat him to it."

Zuko stood to his feet and offered Katara his hand. It struck him how boney the hand was and was a reminder of both their ages. No matter. Sunset is the most gentle part of the day. She took his offered arm and they set off across the grounds.

"You know Tenzin isn't going to be happy about this," Zuko muttered.

She laughed. It was a raspy sound but full of warmth and goodness. "You said it already. He could stand to lighten up a bit."

* * *

"Oh, oh, oh! Would you lookie there?" Bumi said softly, tapping Tenzin on the shoulder. "Check out who mom is leaving with."

"Lord Zuko?" Tenzin asked, irritated at the interruption. "Yes, I know. I saw them seated beneath the cherry some time ago." He turned back to the business at hand. He and Fire Lord Izumi had been discussing a matter of politics when Bumi interrupted.

Fire Lord Izumi, however, was more interested in gossip. "I've been wondering when my father and Lady Katara would finally get around to this." She gave Tenzin and mischievous smile. "We could be step-siblings by spring's end."

"I don't…" Tenzin stammered.

"What's the matter?" Lin Beifong laughed abruptly. "Don't like your mother's choice of boyfriend?

Tenzin's face went blank, "She's her own woman and can make her own decisions. Besides," he said suddenly breaking into a smile. "If Lord Zuko isn't a perfect gentleman mother will freeze him to a rock and be done with it. Dating the world's most celebrated waterbender will come with its own perils."

The group laughed and watched as the elderly couple finished paying their respects at Toph's tomb and disappeared into the late afternoon light.


End file.
